chusetts Spy, or the Worcester Gazette, with yet a new device and another motto: "The noble Efforts of a Virtuous, Free, and United People, shall extirpate Tyranny, and establish Liberty and Peace." One of the new devices represented a chain of thirteen links, with a star in each link, the Union of the thirteen states: the chain is placed in a circular form, leaving an opening for the fleur de lis of France, to which the ends of the chain were attached. Above the arms of France were two hands clasped, and over them a sword with its hilt resting on the hands.

The Spy continued its powerful support of the Union, and the patriotic measures of the people and of the Revolutionary Party, till it saw the independence of the country acknowledged and its journalistic efforts fully secured and rewarded. As this paper is still in existence, and known as the Worcester Spy, we shall have occasion to speak of it again.

The Robertsons, who published the Chronicle in New York in 1768, established the Post-Boy in Albany in 1772. It was in circulation in 1775, at the beginning of the War of the Revolution.

In speaking of the New York Journal and its controversy with the Royal Gazetteer, it was stated that the publication of the latter was commenced in 1762. It became notorious in the colonies, and especially in New York, during the Revolutionary conflict. It was first called Rivington's New York Gazetteer, or the Connecticut, New Jersey, Hudson River, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser. It was established in April, 1762, by James Rivington. He had been a successful printer and bookseller with his brother John in London, where he made about $50,000. After losing most of this in his love for horses and horse-racing, he came to America in 1760, when he settled first in Philadelphia, and afterward in New York. The Gazette was a zealous Royalist organ, and had its office twice mobbed for its zeal, once by the Sons of Liberty, as we have already described, and once by a party of Connecticut militia. After this Rivington returned to London and obtained the appointment of king's printer for America, when he came back with new type, new presses, and renewed energy, and re-established his paper under the name of Rivington's Royal Gazette.

In the early part of the Revolution Rivington conducted his paper with as much impartiality and fairness as most of the editors did in that period, and it may be added that no newspaper in the colonies was better printed, or more copiously furnished with foreign intelligence. In October, 1773, Rivington informed his readers that each impression of his weekly Gazette amounted to 3600 copies. In that year a census of the city was taken, and showed that it contained a population of 21,876 inhabitants. In Boston, with a population

Major André and the New York Papers. 133

of 8000, Campbell succeeded in selling but 300 copies of his NewsLetter when it was the only newspaper printed in America.

While New York was occupied by the British troops four papers were published there. In order to have a newspaper issued daily, the proprietors made an arrangement by which one was published every day, except Sunday and Tuesday of each week, in the following manner :

Rivington's Royal Gazette, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Hugh Gaine's Gazette, or Mercury, Mondays.

Robertson, Mills, and Hicks's Royal American Gazette, Thursdays. Lewis's New York Mercury and General Advertiser, Fridays.

And, according to another authority, one of these papers was published on Tuesday. These papers were all published under the sanction of the British commander-in-chief, but none of the printers assumed the title of "printer to the king" except Rivington, who had a government appointment.

Major André was a frequent contributor to the columns of Rivington's paper. In his leisure moments he would employ his time in lampooning the American generals. He was the author of the famous satire "The Cow Chase," which appeared in the Gazette. It was in three cantos, and contained a few specimens of genuine humor. It was soon after the completion of the third canto that André left New York on his fatal visit to Arnold at West Point. It was published in the Gazette on the very day of his capture.

"And now I've clos'd my epic strain,

I tremble as I show it,

Lest this same warrior-drover, Wayne,
Should ever catch the poet."

Before the three thousand subscribers of the Gazette had read this canto the poet was indeed caught, and in the hands of these very "warrior-drovers" and "dung-born tribes" that he had been so facetiously lampooning.

The American Literary Gazette relates the following incident in Rivington's journalistic career :

The wit of Rivington's Gazette appears to have been very offensive to some of the Americans, and they were very liberal of their promises as to what they would do when they got him into their power; but he had a large amount of tact, and we suspect was very much of the gentleman also. He used to tell a capital story of his interview with Ethan Allen, one of the republican heroes who paid him a visit for the purpose of administering a "licking. He says, "I was sitting alone, after a good dinner, with a bottle of Madeira before me, when I heard an unusual. noise in the street and a huzza from the boys. I was in the second story, and stepping to the window saw a tall figure in tarnished regimentals, with a large cocked hat and an enormous long sword, followed by a crowd of boys, who occasionally cheered him with huzzas of which he seemed insensible. He came up to my door and stopped. I could see no more, my heart told me it was Ethan Allen. I shut my window and retired behind my table and my bottle. I was certain the hour of reckoning had come. There was no retreat. Mr. Staples, my clerk, came in paler than ever, and clasping his hands, said, 'Master, he has come !'

'I know it.' 'He entered the store and asked if James Rivington lived there. I answered yes, sir. Is he at home? I will go and see, sir, I said, and now master what is to be done? There he is in the store and the boys peeping at him from the street.' I had made up my mind. I looked at the Madeira-possibly took a glass. Show him up, said I, and if such Madeira cannot mollify him he must be harder than adamant. There was a fearful moment of suspense. I heard him on the stairs, his long sword clanking at every step. In he stalked. 'Is your name James Rivington?' It is, sir, and no man could be more happy to see Colonel Ethan Allen. 'Sir, I have come Not another word, my dear Colonel, until you have taken a seat and a glass of old Madeira. But, sir, I don't think it proper Not another word, Colonel; taste this wine, I have had it in glass for ten years old wine you know, unless it is originally sound, never improves by age. He took the glass, swallowed the wine, smacked his lips and shook his head approvingly. Sir, I come Not another word until you have taken another glass, and then, my dear Colonel, we will talk of old affairs, and I have some queer events to detail. In short, we finished two bottles of Madeira, and parted as good friends as if we had never had cause to be otherwise."

When the war was about to close Rivington threw away the appendages of royalty. The arms of Great Britain no longer appeared on his office. It was no more the Royal Gazette, but a plain Republican newspaper, entitled Rivington's New York Gazette and Universal Advertiser. But the people put very little trust in its editor; the public patronage fell off, and the paper ended in 1783. There were few men better qualified in energy and enterprise than Rivington to publish a newspaper. His sagacity during the war in keeping clear of difficulties, after King Sears and his men had destroyed his types before the Revolution, was remarkable. The following appeared in the Gazette of July 10, 1782, when there was a prospect of peace, as an instance of the tact of its editor:

To the Public.

The publisher of this paper, sensible that his zeal for the success of his Majesty's arms, his sanguine wishes for the good of his country, and his friendship for individuals, have at times led him to credit and circulate paragraphs, without investigating the facts so closely as his duty to the public demanded, trusting to their feelings, and depending on their generosity, he begs them to look over past errors, and depend on future correctness. From henceforth he will neither expect nor solicit their favours longer than his endeavours shall stamp the same degree of authenticity and credit on the Royal Gazette of New-York, as all Europe allow to the Royal Gazette of London.

Freneau, who was then editing a paper in Philadelphia, frequently satirized Rivington and his Royal Gazette. On one occasion, when

the title to the Gazette was scarcely legible, Freneau wrote:

Says Satan to Jeminy, "I hold you a bet,

That you mean to abandon our Royal Gazette;

Or, between you and me, you would manage things better,

Than the title to print in so sneaking a letter.

Now, being connected so long in the art,

It would not be prudent at present to part;

And the people, perhaps, would be frightened, and fret

If the devil alone carried on the Gazette."

Says Jemmy to Satan (by way of a wipe,)

Who gives me the matter, should furnish the type;

And why you find fault I can scarcely divine,

For the types, like the printer, are certainly thine."

Rivington's Royal Gazette of New York. 135

After the Gazette had somewhat improved in its typographical appearance, Freneau proceeded :

From the regions of night with his head in a sack
Ascended a person accoutred in black.

"My mandates are fully complied with at last,
New arms are engraved, and new letters are cast;
I therefore determine and fully accord,

This servant of mine shall receive his reward."
Then turning about, to the printer he said,
"Who late was my servant, shall now be my aid;
Kneel down! for your merits I dub you a knight;
From a passive subaltern I bid you to rise-
The inventor, as well as the printer, of lies."

Although Rivington discontinued the Gazette soon after the peace of 1783, he uninterruptedly traded largely in books and stationery for several years subsequent to that period. He finally failed in that business, and retired. He died in July, 1802, at the age of seventyeight. One of the old thoroughfares of New York City is still named Rivington Street.

In August, 1773, the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser appeared. It was published by William Goddard, the old printer of the ephemeral and sensational Constitutional Courant at “Peter Hassenclever's Iron Works," and the Pennsylvania Chronicle in 1767. Goddard was one of the itinerant journalists of his day.

The Norwich (Connecticut) Packet was published for the first time in October, 1773

Isaiah Thomas, like Franklin, and Goddard, and Parks, and Rind, did not confine his enterprise to one paper. He established others wherever he thought he could accomplish any thing. On the 4th of December, 1773, he issued the Essex Journal and Merrimack Packet, or the Massachusetts and New Hampshire General Advertiser. It was published in Newburyport. Thomas had for partner in this enterprise Henry Walton Tinges. In a few months Thomas sold his share to Ezra Lunt, and in two years and a half the whole concern passed into the hands of John Mycall, who published the paper for a number of years-twenty or more.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

INCREASE OF NEWSPAPERS.NAMES.-LINES ON THE DEATH OF WARREN. WILLIAM GORDON, THE HISTORIAN OF THE REVOLUTION.-DEATH OF JAMES OTIS.-PUBLICATION OF HISTORIES AND GEOGRAPHIES. — -NEWSPAPERS IN NEW JERSEY AND VERMONT.-THE GREENBACKS OF THE LAST CENTURY.

ANNO DOMINI 1775 not only inaugurated the Revolution, giving birth to a new nation, but it imparted new life to journalism. Newspapers had become an important institution in the colonies. It was the vox populi of that eventful period.

No great wealth had been acquired by either printers or editors, but many became easy in their circumstances. Not much capital was required to carry on an establishment then. Journalists run no expensive expresses; they employed no European correspondents; they did not enjoy the luxury of a staff of paid writers. The Atlantic cable, with tolls at five, three, or two dollars a word, was not then laid; they had not even dreamed, as Shakspeare had, of Puck's "putting a girdle around about the earth in forty minutes." It is positive that the expense of a common news-boat would have ruined John Campbell and the News-Letter outright, and sent him to an insane asylum, if there had been one in Boston at that time. But the spirit of the colonies was revolutionary. Wonderful achievements of the Press were in the womb of time. They were begin. ning to develop themselves in the increase of newspaper readers, and the consequent increase of newspapers and newspaper enterprise. The progress was slow, but sure. No less than eight newspapers were established during the first year of the Revolution. Four of these appeared in Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress sat, and where Thomas Paine and Philip Freneau lived. John Dunlop published the Pennsylvania Packet, or General Advertiser; James Humphreys, Jr., the Pennsylvania Ledger, or the Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey Weekly Advertiser; B. Towne the Pennsylvania Evening Post; and Story and Humphreys the Pennsylvania Mercury and Universal Advertiser, the latter endeavoring evidently to outstrip the Ledger, which modestly asked, in its title, for advertisements from four provinces only. Another German paper in Philadelphia was established at this time.

The Constitutional Gazette was issued in New York in 1775, its